Being Home
by binarose
Summary: Continuation of The Host. Focusing on Wanda's thoughts on Ian, Jared, Mel, Jamie, and general life in the caves.
1. Chapter 1

"It's a strange world," I murmured, more to myself than to the other native soul

"The strangest," he agreed

A/N I have no idea where I'm going to go with this story, so feel free to drop me a line and give me inspiration :D

After we left Burns and the other humans, leaving them with our geographical co-ordinates and us with theirs, in case of emergency, we got back in the van and made our way home.

_Home. _I thought of this word and how when I first came to this planet, how it had not meant anything to me, how I had not intended to settle. How I had left my apartment so bare, and within months of arriving, I was out in the desert. Maybe it was Mel's decision in our head, but I'd like to think that some twist of fate had it already set in stone that I would remain on Earth, just not where it put me to begin with.

I snuggled against Ian who shared the front seat with Jared, who was driving, and looked out at the night sky, and the long road heading back to the caves.

Once we arrived home, the day was already in full swing, as everybody was up and working, to make up for me, Ian, Jared, Mel, Aaron and Brandt having a rest day, having been up all night, and being scared out of our wits for a small amount of time by Burns and Nate.

Melanie was practically asleep, and Jared had her in a fireman lift over his shoulder, nodded at the rest of us, and went off to bed. It wasn't often that Mel appeared vulnerable, so I watched them leave until Ian pulled at the crook in my arm, and stood in front of me.

"My Wanderer" was all he said

I smiled up at him, almost forgetting that this body was somewhat shorter than Melanie, and I had to crane my neck further upwards. I frowned at the further limitation of this body.

Ian gave a small laugh, which only made me frown further.

"My Wanderer, a frown does not become you"

It was in that moment I was thankful that the O'Shea family were built the way they were, as Ian lifted me up to his face. I hooked my legs around his waist, pushed a stray hair out of my face, and looked straight into those eyes that I loved so much. He placed a small kiss on my nose, and looked into my eyes.

As if on cue, Jeb, and his still ever present gun rounded the corner to our spot. Ian without missing a beat, and still keeping a firm hold of me, non-chalantly said,

"Morning Jeb" and gave a big toothy grin in Jeb's direction

Jeb narrowed his eyes, looked us up and down, and turned on his heel.

I giggled, Ian guffawed, and Jeb could be heard chuckling as he wandered off down the corridor.

Ian lowered me back to the ground, and took my hand, and we walked to our room, still giggling to ourselves.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N Thanks for the reviews guys :) I'm gonna do this solely from Wanda's point of view, and if it wasn't clear by this chapter, I love O'Wanda.

I can't write smut or action scenes, so we'll see where this goes as I follow the mundane life in the caves - I'm gonna do some chapters on raids, and I'm going to have Wanda telling stories from her previous lives, like the story from the bears when she did an emergency insertion.

Chapter 2

The following morning, I awoke quite early, I could tell by the light shade of orange of the sky I could see, and stretched so vigorously that I fell out of bed. I stood quickly, re-balanced myself, and adjusted my ruffled clothes, before realising that there was a small sound in the room.

Ian was giggling at me.

I looked him in the eye, feigned offence, and went towards the door.

"You are not leaving me Wanderer" he said, echoing his words from a few weeks ago, granted from a very different situation.

I spun on my heel, and recalling a memory of Melanie's when she would tease Jamie as a child, stuck my tongue out at him, and pushed open the door.

I heard a resounding thud as Ian too fell out of bed, and ran to the door. I hadn't gone very far, I was outside Jeb's room a few doors down, and I dissolved into laughter as Ian skidded out of our door, with his hair all ruffled, and the legs of his trousers turned up to odd lengths.

I slumped against the wall, and sunk to the floor, as laughing was taking so much of my energy. Ian scooped me up from the floor and twirled me round, until we were practically dancing in the corridor.

"MY HOUSE, MY RULES, NO EXCESSIVE NOISE AT AN UNGODLY HOUR" shouted Jeb quickly, before his snoring resumed.

Now that the rains had subsided, everyone was back in their bedrooms, and after all the extra work yesterday, everyone was going to be tired no matter how much sleep they had had in the night, I guess Ian and I forgot, and may have had too much sleep, if such a thing was possible.

We headed to the recreation room, where we would be safe to make as much noise as we wanted. Ian insisted on carrying me there, or rather I just didn't protest it these days. I had thought it out in my head logically and the 'fire' I had felt for Jared was Mel having control over me, but nearer the end of my time in her body, when she was content because Jared and Jamie were safe, and her control slipped, my control over our body fell in love with Ian. After the first night of the rains, when we each had said that we were waiting for the other to organise their thoughts on the situation, I knew that the words I had used to comfort him when I was prepared to leave him, and remain in the sand, were more true than I had allowed myself to feel at that moment. Now, I knew for certain that they were true, in all respects.

We arrived at the recreation cave to find we were not alone; Mel and Jared were obviously in the same situation as us, their bodies had slept, and were awake, but the 33 other residents of the cave needed to snore for a bit longer.

Mel was sprawled on the floor, and heard us enter the cave, and looked up and met my eyes with a smile. Jared was running laps, for whatever reason.

I crashed out on the floor next to Mel, Ian ran laps with Jared, until the crashed and began to wrestle and Mel and I just watched until someone came for us when breakfast was served.

Breakfast was the usual affair after a raid, perishables and treats. Everyone was getting slices of bread, and had the option to toast them over the oven, and eggs. There were also small boxes of cereals, and milk to go with them.

I thought of my current table at breakfast, compared to when Jeb had first made me eat in here; I was sat next to Ian, who was at the end of the bench, Mel was the other side of me, Jared was next to her, Trudy, Paige and Candy were next to him, and opposite all of us were Jeb, Jamie, Lily, Brandt, Geoffrey, Heath and Andy. It was a tight fit to get everyone around the table and to avoid putting your elbows in someone else's food but we managed.

Sunny was still unsure about the sheer amount of people we housed here, and usually ate with Kyle in their room – we had seen him leave as we came in.

Doc was sat with Sharon, and had waved when we had entered. Sharon, Maggie and Lucina had still not warmed up to me, and sat at the table on the far edge of the mess, although Lucina had allowed Freedom and Isaiah to wander, and they often followed me around if I crossed their path, however they still avoided Mel – how were they to know that they were avoiding me in Mel's body.

The breakfast chatter finally came round to the topic of what we had brought back, as we had not got that far yesterday, after telling Jeb about at least 4 other human colonies in the nearby areas.

"...and then there are some caramels and chocolates in one of the boxes near the front, they were the first thing we got" Jared finished with his stock take, counting off shops or areas I assumed on his fingers.

Ian put his face down to his eggs and smiled, so much so that his cheeks looked practically strained. Mel looked sideways at him, then at me, and winked. I'd gone into the first shop with Mel, and we had made out we were students preparing for a slumber party, and we had bought lots of sweets and chocolates, as well as salty crisps and popcorn kernels. Ian hadn't known I had bought him his favourite caramel sweets.

I smiled contentedly to myself, looked around at my family.

_My family._

Something I never thought I would have, and then something I was willing to give up for their happiness. Of course, in the days following my awakening, I had been kindly chastised by all but the two small children, Lucina, Magnolia and Sharon, and told that it would have brought them all much sadness if I had gotten my wish to be left in the sand with Walter and Wes. I'm very much glad now that Jared stopped Doc, even if I don't approve of his methods. I do often wonder if even without Jared's assistance, Doc would have done it anyway. I thought about waking up, maybe as a bear or a flower again, and cursing a memory of Doc for not granting my wish, but I don't think I would have given up, I would have found my way back to Earth, eventually, the lonely Wanderer. Of course, I would rather not think about it, if they had sent me away, it may have just killed Ian, and by the time I could have come back, my family would be long gone.

I was on kitchen duty today was Trudy, Paige, Heath and Geoffrey, so once everyone began to rise from the table, I cleared my pots and scanned the room for stray plates and cutlery. My mind was elsewhere, and Ian swept me up from behind, and twirled me around again, although not as vigorously, as I squealed with surprise. He set me back on the floor, pressed his lips to mine, causing him to bend quite a lot,

"Thank you, my Wanderer" and off he went to the fields, as they needed turning and rotating again now that the ground was slightly softer and the rains had subsided.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N Thanks for waiting guys :) I've been so busy and I've hardly anytime to write. I still don't know where I'm going with this story, but if it still isn't obvious, I really like Ian being protective over Wanda, and being so able to read her every emotion :)**

Chapter 3

Lunch passed without great event and before me and the others in the kitchen knew, it was time for dinner. We still had perishables to eat, so dinner was to be chicken. I watched as Jamie ran into the mess, and made a beeline for the food. Hot on his tail were Ian, Jared and Kyle, and ambling behind them were Sunny and Mel. I smiled at each of them as they passed my serving station, and then served everybody else until Maggie, Sharon and Lucina came in – Trudy switched places with me to serve them. I went to sit down with my extended family, and then I realised, Sunny and Kyle had remained in the mess. I looked over at the small girl, and she smiled at me using her whole face.

After most people had finished, Sharon, Maggie, Lucina and her children left, and others began turning themselves round in their chairs. I realised they were expecting a story today. Trudy was obviously in on this and had left dough out for me to knead and shape while I spoke.

"Tell us more about the Ice Bears, and the emergency extraction" said Ian

I looked over at Sunny, and had an idea.

"Sunny," she looked up at me, "you spent more time with the Ice Bears, I spent only one life cycle with them, I'm sure you have more stories"

"None that are as interesting as performing an emergency extraction of a soul halfway between cities" she said at almost a whisper. Kyle slung an arm around her and pulled her into him. He could be gentle it seemed.

"And besides, I haven't heard many of your stories, and you have had so many lives. I don't even know about the Origin very much, I was born into the Ice Bears" Sunny continued

I sighed, I had hoped for a night off.

"So the Ice Bears?" I looked around at the crowd to confirm that these are the stories they wanted.

"Actually" Doc spoke up, "I'd like to hear about the Origin too"

A mumble of confirmation went around the group, and they all looked at me expectantly. I smiled; the Origin was a beautiful planet.

"Okay. So on the Origin, we are all in our pure forms, we are just ourselves..."

"Just the silvery...orbs, which get implanted into humans?" asked Doc, trying not to sound offensive to myself and Sunny, and not bring back memories to others.

"Yeah, just like that. Obviously we don't have the power of speech or sight, or any senses that you have here on Earth, but we are able to hook our tendrils to each other to communicate. It is why so many of us are storytellers, we, float is the closest description, around the planet and we form pictures and tales, and then we share them. My brothers and sisters and I were lucky, our 'mother' was extremely unusual, she had been 'born' on the Origin, and had left to join the Spiders, then the Dolphins, then the Flowers, and finally the Bats before returning to the Origin and taking her calling to Motherhood, so we were all 'born' with her collected memories of the other planets, and most of us were regarded as the most wonderful storytellers on the Origin, and when rumours spread on other planets of great storytellers, I could usually trace them as a 'family' member"

"How do you know if your calling is to Motherhood?" asked Trudy, as she rose to put the rolls I had been moulding into the oven.

"From what I heard, it was just a gut feeling, you just knew, no-one ever knew why. It was said that I had a calling in Motherhood, but I never felt anything while I was upon the Origin, or on any other planets"

"And on this planet?" Jeb eyed me suspiciously

"I haven't been here long enough to decide, you have one of the shortest life spans I have experienced, so I may not decide and my natural instincts are still adjusting to your emotions, Mel could tell you of my inner turmoil"

Mel nodded, helping me lie through my teeth. The truth was that since I had fulfilled my need to tell stories and be a teacher through the university and these talks, Motherhood had arisen as a calling in my mind. The problem was I knew that Ian doesn't want to bring children in to this broken world.

"What does the Origin look like?" Jared asked

"The vultures described it much like your Sun, although it doesn't have a yellow colour to it. The spiders described it as peaceful looking, if it is possible for a rotating ball of gas to be peaceful. Many described it much like the Ice Bear planet from a distance, white and shining, but obviously without eyes until we had reached other planets, and being in hibernation if we chose to return, very few of my kind have seen it"

"I heard a friend in the Ice Bears, Tunnelled Light Shine, call it a diamond planet, but I don't know what information he was going off of" said Sunny

The conversation on the Origin carried on for another hour or so, with various people asking questions, and Sunny adding in what she had heard in her previous lives. I realised that this was the first talk I had done since Walter had passed away, and without him or Wes in the room, I felt like the questions lacked...something. I couldn't put my finger on it. I made a mental note to ask Ian to take me to see Walter and Wes soon.

Jeb called out for everyone to 'get their rear ends to bed or so help me' and everyone filed out. Jamie took my hand, and Mel took his other, and we walked off towards our corridor. Ian and Jared wrestled behind us, still clearly full of energy. I hugged Jamie as we passed the room he shared with Aaron and Brandt, and then I hugged Mel and Jared as we reached their room, and suddenly Ian was lifting me off the ground again.

"She can walk you know O'Shea" came Mel's voice as she disappeared inside

Ian looked down at me and stopped at our door.

"You cannot lie to me anymore, my Wanderer"

I thought back to my lie, and wondered what he could mean, but before I could think, Ian had picked me up and I was on the bed.


End file.
